The story is a bit of a seesawing experience. Instead of offering yet another bland World War II experience, with generic tanks and soldier firing, War Front: Turning Point rejuvenates the setting by adding its own unique alternative World War II story. Instead of Hilter powering the German forces and concluding the Second World War, as we know it, Hilter is assassinated in the early stages of WWII, opening the path to a few unlikely turn of events. Leadership alters and the tension between factions eases, allowing each nation to experiment with new technology and thereby providing new types of devastation on the battlefield; resulting in War Front being a somewhat familiar World War II game, yet with a few scientific twists.
The turn of events means that you’ll be able to command Nazis with jetpacks, tanks with freezing cannons and even force fields to protect buildings. While the alternative story isn’t bad, it’s the characters and the way the story is told that leaves a lot to be desired. All of the characters featured are portrayed much like your stereotypical heroes who can tip the tide of war in their favour by merely using one finger. The story doesn’t really carry much substance either, failing to keep you occupied from start to finish – but for a game set in an alternative world, it’s often hard to take anything seriously.
Devastation is ensured.
Regardless of the story, War Front holds up relatively well as far as real-time strategy games go. There’s a healthy range of modes to indulge yourself in, including a two-story campaign mode, skirmish maps and multiplayer – so as far as content goes, War Front isn’t short of it. The game also borrows a lot of its inspiration from the Command & Conquer games, from its base building fundamentals to its resource structure.
It isn’t particularly a bad choice, but if you’re looking for a game that pushes the genre in a new direction then you’re best to look elsewhere – though the gameplay is still highly enjoyable for gamers who have grown up on RTS games. You’ll begin with a HQ and from there you’ll be able to construct barracks, airbases, tank stations, and whatever else you desire to fuel your army. Resource gathering isn’t overcomplicated, and is easily obtained by building power generators and resource trucks that gather your one source of material that’ll fuel your entire army and your buying habits.
There are also different tech levels that’ll enable you to obtain new units, skills and buildings the further you advance through the tech levels. The first tech provides your standard and generic World War II type units; meanwhile the further techs will enable you to build more technically advanced units and technologies, including the various World War/Sci-fi hybrids. There are three factions to play as in the game (Russia, America/UK and Germany), all of which that have each of their own special units, technologies and buildings. The Allies rely on a range of heavy explosive units and technologies, namely their devastating earthquake bomb that blasts a large portion of the map into pieces. The Russians have a tank that can immobilise units with its freeze-beam. And, finally, the Germans have access to jetpack troopers, large robots and stealth bombers. Not only do these differences provide a unique setting for each team, but also provides alternative play styles for each team.
Classic base building formula.
While most of the game is generally quite enjoyable, War Front has a few obvious technical problems that hinder its success. The AI is by far the biggest culprit - on most occasions units will not attack without your consent, generally requiring constant management on your behalf. This prevents you from planning multiple strike points on enemy bases, since controlling two squadrons of units becomes an extremely tedious task. Additionally, the lack of formation options is hurtful when trying to make strategic decisions while in combat, and the absence of being able to use traditional items, such as grenades and laying sandbags, is surprising. The growing trend of including first-person viewpoint options is also featured in War Front, allowing you to hop into anti-tank guns and bunkers to manually shoot at any incoming enemies. Unfortunately, the option once again falls flat – the frame rates drops drastically during these sequences and there are no real advantages of using the option over the pre-existing method.
The presentation isn’t particularly groundbreaking by any means either. While the destruction of buildings is superb, and the changing weather effects look equally as good, the animation is quite stiff and unnatural, and the level of detail is generally quite low. The audio really isn’t too much better either. The soundtrack has a likeness to a Star Wars soundtrack; full of crashes and bangs to increase atmosphere, yet never feeling quite at home within the context of the game. Sound effects aren’t of any particularly notable interest either.
The AI inconsistency is probably the only major issue with War Front, holding it back from being a great game instead of a good game. There’s still a lot to appreciate from this game though, namely it’s resemblance to old real-time strategy games, such as Command & Conquer. Although, if you can look pass the patchy AI and shallow story, and adore old-school RTS games, then there is every chance you’ll find something in War Front that you’ll thoroughly enjoy.
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